EXILES #1

Review by: ohcaroline

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Avg Rating: 3.7
 
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Size: pages
Price: 3.99

This was my pick of the week.  Yes, it was a light week, and yes, this is a bit of sentimental pick.  I’ve been a big Jeff Parker fan since X-Men: First Class launched, and seeing Magneto’s two daughters — Polaris and Wanda Maximoff (just Witch, not Scarlet Witch in this reality) — on a team together brought a great big smile to my face.  

Beyond that, though, this is just a well-done comic book.  “Big dumb fun” has become a bit of a buzzword for certain popular Marvel books.  “Exiles”, I submit, is “Big, sharp, witty fun” — particularly, check out the bit with Panther and his robot lion — and the ending made me eager for more.

Other commenters have touched on some important points — this is a total reboot, so you don’t need any previous ‘Exiles’ knowledge.  The premise, which is explained within the issue, is that characters are sucked out of parallel realities to form a sort of dimension-jumping strike force.  It might help to be familiar with some of the characters (Polaris and Wanda, Blink — who I never heard of before, Beast, Forge, and Black Panther) from other incarnations, but honestly they’re pretty much new characters. 

Also, this first issue is $3.99, but solicits tell us it will be a $2.99 book from here on out.  While I question the strategy of launching books at a higher price, I didn’t mind the extra buck because artist Salva Espin’s character sketches in the back are quite lovely.  I wasn’t sure I was going to like the art based on the previews, but it quickly grew on me.   The character designs are striking while still being idenitifiable with their “other” selves, facial expressions and action are rendered well and, on a shallow note, my X-girls look really pretty!

Speaking of X-girls, Jeff Parker is on record that one of his less favorite parts of the original/ First Class X-Men team was the high boy:girl ratio, and he’s avoided that here by presenting a gender-balanced team.  And last note on characterization: I was beyond pleased to see this version of Polaris, who seems to be the front-runner for team leader at this point.  Lorna Dane has consistently been portrayed, in the main Marvel Universe, as a character who ought to be incredibly powerful *except* — she’s too unstable, she has too many personal problems, she keeps getting kidnapped and brainwashed, etc.  The version of Polaris in this book seems to be ‘Polaris without the *except*.  I’m really looking forward to seeing more of her, and to learning more about all of these characters.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 4 - Very Good

Comments

  1. So is this like Sliders with Mutants? Are there an infinite number of Universes?

  2. To be honest, I have *no idea*.  I kind of skimmed the expositiony parts.  But ‘Sliders’ seems like a good comparison.

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